Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Celebrity Stylist and Reality T.V. Star Rachel Zoe on the Move

Perhaps in preparation for their upcoming bundle of boy baby joy, L.A.-based celebrity ur-stylist and reality television star Rachel Zoe and her metrosexual man-mate/business partner Rodger Berman recently vacated their leased one-bedroom apartment on the Sunset Strip and decamped–we hear through the celebrity gossip grapevine–to a family-sized mansion in the Beverly Hills flats.

Miz Zoe, a slip of a thing who probably went from a Chanel size minus-zero to a comparatively plump size two, made a name and small fortune styling red carpet ensembles for celebs and celebutantes like Nicole Richie, model Molly Sims, Cameron Diaz and Twitter-queen Demi Moore. With no formal fashion training–she has a liberal arts degree from George Washington University–Miz Zoe turned her personal style of retro-fitted 1970s urban disco-glam meets boho chic into a lucrative and growing brand that already encompasses a reality television show (The Rachel Zoe Project), a line of accessories she hawks on QVC, an upcoming clothing line separate from QVC and a slew of collaborations with and consulting gigs for bejeweled handbag designer Judith Lieber, Gap, Piperlime and Lindex.

Back in late 2007 Rach and Rodge put their 2 bedroom and 3 pooper mid-century modern house on Rising Glen Road above the Sunset Strip on the market with an asking price of $2,995,000. The 2,545 square foot single-story contemporary, which records show they snatched in December of 2001 for $914,000, sold for $2,500,000 in June of 2008.

We don't know if the waifish pair way-layed somewhere in between, but at some point after they decamped their house in the hills they settled into a leased apartment on a high floor of the star-stocked Sierra Towers building on the border between West Hollywood and Beverly Hills where other residents include entertainment industry grande dames such as Cher, Elton John, Diahann Carroll and Joan Collins. The leased apartment was featured prominently on Rach's reality tee-vee program making it instantly recognizable to those like Your Mama who have an unhealthy affinity for hair-brained reality television programs.It was brought to our attention the other day by a gentleperson we'll call Terry Tellsusaboutit that the fashionista couple's temporary and contemporary condo (shown above) had recently been on the market. We hear from another person in a position to know that the 2,117 square foot corner condo unit had been available for sale with an optimistic asking price of $4,500,000 and we learn from listing information Terry teased up out of the internets that it had also been offered for lease at $12,500 per month.

The apartment no longer appears on the open sales or rental market because according to another well-placed informant–let's call her Sunny Sunsetstripknowitall–Rach and Rodge have packed up up their designer duds, moved out and that the apartment was already leased to a non-celebrity tenant for an unknown amount of moolah.

Listing information shows the couple-friendly 20th floor condo has just one bedroom and two bathrooms. Photos show a small entry hall spills into a generous but far from cavernous living/dining room with polished concrete floors and two full walls of floor to ceiling glass sliders that open to narrow terraces and provide panoramic views of over Beverly Hills and the expensive homes nestled into the steep hill that rises up behind the Sunset Strip. A wall of built-in cubbies and shelves in the living room hold books, stylist-approved tchotchskes and a flat screen tee-vee on which Rodge, Rach and her team of ambitious assistants watched their fashion wards walk the red carpet at the 2010 Academy Awards.

As a juicy tabloid aside, Miz Zoe is reportedly engaged in a cut-throat cat fight with her former assistant Brad Goreski, with all parties smiling and refusing to comment, natch. See kids, Mister Goreski recently packed up his bow-ties and lit out from under Miz Zoe's styling wing and (allegedly) poached Demi Moore, a long time and beloved client of Miz Zoe. Quellescandale!

Anyhoodles poodles, the adjacent galley kitchen may be merely apartment-sized but it's nicely turned out and well equipped with clean-lined flat-fronted cabinetry and high grade built-in appliances that include an integrated refrigerator/freezer.

The wide open exposure in the main living/dining room can be eschewed for the cozy den where Rach and Rodge had placed another flat scree tee-vee on a mirrored bureau. The children will note the highly coveted $1,100+ Hermès Avalon blanket self-consciously tucked over the arm of the bright white love seat sofa where it whispers loudly, "Look at me, I'm an $1,100 Hermès Avalon blanket and I'm delicious." This, it should also be noted is only one of at least two Hermès blankets Rach and Rodge had strewn about their rented residence at the Sierra Towers.

We followed up our celebrity real estate lead from Terry Tellsusaboutit not only with a communication with Sunny Sunsetstripknowitall but with a call to our über-informative informant Lucy Spillerguts who frequently has her finger on the pulse of celebrity real estate matters and who snitched to Your Mama that Rach and Rodge moved into a large and architecturally-suspicious mansion on a palm tree-lined street in a pretty fookin' fancy area of the Bev Hills flats. The property is close enough to walk to the chi-chi shops on and around Rodeo Drive, but Your Mama would place a rather large bet that nary a soul will see itty-bitty Rachel Zoe teetering down the street in six inch Louboutins and a vintage Halston caftan pushing a tricked-out stroller like this $3,500 number on her way from her house to the Bev Hills outpost of Barney's New York.The gated mansion to where Lucy Spillerguts says Rach and Rodge are relocating (shown above) does not currently appear to be on the open market. However, we did suss out that the 7,185 square foot mansion had been on the market a couple years ago with a number of price tags that went as high as $8,250,000. Property records do not show a recent transfer of ownership suggesting that Rach and Rodge are, once again, renters.

Listing information we readily accessed on the interweb shows the two-story trad contains a total of 5 bedrooms and 6.5 bathrooms. In addition to the small but not minuscule staff room and pooper located on the ground floor behind the laundry room, there are three nicely-sized family bedrooms on the second floor, each with walk-in closet and private facilities. The expansive master suite includes an awkward corner fireplace, sitting room with built-in cabinets and display shelves, a private terrace, and his and her en suites that include large poopers and bedroom-sized custom fitted walk-in closets perfect for clothes horses like Rach and Rodge.

The mansion, an architecturally unusual house for Rach and Rodge to choose based on their very contemporary previous residences, includes a central foyer flanked by a formal dining room and a 35-foot long step-down formal living room with fireplace. A long hall with two right angles passes a paneled study, powder pooper, the door into the attached front-facing two-car garage, the laundry and staff rooms to the less formal family quarters at the rear of the house. The gigantic sky-lit kitchen has traditional and ordinary–but probably expensive–white raised-panel cabinetry with black granite counter tops, a breakfast room wrapped in windows and a family room with mirrored built-in wet bar, fireplace and French doors that open to the back yard where stone terraces and lush landscaping surround the swimming pool and spa.

Why these two don't just suck it up and buy a modest but posh little house where they can raise baby is beyond Your Mama's capacity to understand. Perhaps they'll enlighten our ignorant ass at their housewarming/meet the baby party to which we're hoping in conscious futility to get invited.

I am sure Mama speaks fluent French and it is just an oversight, but scandale is masculine and thus it ought to be "quel scandale", not "quelle scandale", right?I am struck (almost literally) but the looming floor lamp in the salon, but since you say she has an actual BA degree from a good university, I suspect she really reads from time to time. That makes it all okay.

Am I nuts, or is the b-roll building exterior they used to represent the apartment building on the show not Sierra Towers? I cannot imagine any rights issues if they filmed the building from the public street, unless they did it for privacy reasons? Maybe a publicity clause for building residents? Or maybe just reality TV proving once again to not be reality?

It would actually make sense, because I remember the b-roll exterior being a shorter building and I never could understand how they got those views being so low. It baffled my mind every time I watched.

I just started second guessing myself wondering if I was thinking about the new studio, but I am not -- I remember that being an entirely different building.

I used to detest Rachel Zoe, but I now have a sweet spot for her. Sort-of scripted reality TV has that effect on me.

I suspect your mama doesn’t read these comments, however, the Bev Hills house was brought to your attention back in 09, when the previous investment owner, Melissa Etheridge, sold this house and made one hell of a profit.

Jesse: The show did in fact use some other building in the b-roll for exterior shots. My friends and I noticed the discrepancy early on and for the life of us, we cannot figure out where the building is they actually show.

Who knows why they didn't just show the Sierra Towers building, unless the Sierra Towers HOA has some kind of copyright on exterior shots of it (which wouldn't surprise me). Aside from that, it doesn't make sense as everyone already knows it's packed with celebrities far more famous than Zoe, and, it's pretty well secured so I can't imagine anyone being worried about regular shmoes trying to access the elevators to catch a glimpse of Rachel.

Either way it proves, yet again, that reality TV is not, in fact, reality.

Jesse: Like other commenters mentioned, you're right that Sierra Towers isn't what's shown on the show. I think the one on the show has a balcony or some decoration on front that never seemed to make sense (if I'm remembering correctly).

Similarly, does anybody know if this also happens for the Kardashians? I'm pretty sure the establishing house for their show is not the actual house they live in. The house shown in the establishing shots I've randomly seen other places like music videos.

The exterior for the show is some mid-level new construction on Wilshire and Westholme. For whatEVER reason. It's not even one of the better new buildings on the Wilshire Corridor (as are the Californian, Carlyle, Remington, etc), so go know.

I truly enjoy the view from Ms. Zoe's side of ST, but then Trousdale-watching is my hobby AND my profession, LOL. "Hey honey, come look outside! Jen is skinny-dipping again!" LOL.

Re Rachel living in Sierra Towers and not in the actual building shown on the show: It never made sense to me why she would move from a cool house in the Hollywood Hills into a small condo. Now that I know it was Sierra Towers, it makes sense.

Old but...the building that they shoot (exterior shots) is the Wilshire Margot. I was always confused as to why she had such amazing views at so low of a story. I assumed that maybe she lived in the back but that was way wrong. As someone said earlier, they could have used a better building to shoot.